


Unspoken

by autumnsolstice9



Series: Justice [9]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-11
Updated: 2018-11-11
Packaged: 2019-08-21 23:45:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16586594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/autumnsolstice9/pseuds/autumnsolstice9
Summary: They start heading towards Konoha, Team 8 finally whole once again.Or: Team 8 reconnects.





	Unspoken

**Author's Note:**

> You'll probably want to read the other parts of this series before you read this!

Kiba does not feel shame for leaving with Hinata. When it comes to his team, he has always known they come first, even before his loyalty to the village. Team 8 has never been anything other than home, where all three members are free to be themselves. He and Shino can be themselves when they are home, but they have all been acutely aware of the chains that shackle Hinata’s personality in. Team 8 is where they live without fear of being judged, where they push themselves to become better, where they are family.

It makes him angry to think that Hinata can only be herself around a select few because of what her father thinks, of what the Hyuuga elders will do if they find out that she is as angry, rash, and emotional as the rest of world.

They are resting in the forest, their tent thankfully large enough to fit all three of them plus Akamaru, all pointedly ignoring how Hinata shuffles from place to place, her injuries still plaguing her. Injuries she got to save Naruto.

He hates it. He hates that she throws her life on the line for him, how she has almost been taken away not once, but twice. 

“Why do you do it?” he asks her, his jaw stiff and his words accusing. Why would she jump in front of attacks for Naruto? Doesn’t she know that he needs her, that he and Shino and Akamaru and Kurenai would be lost without her?

Hinata shuffles towards him and takes his hand. Shino is staring at him, and Kiba knows he is being brash again, but he needs to know. They have always been open to each other, and Kiba is desperately trying to understand why Hinata would carelessly throw her life away.

Somewhere beneath his fear, he knows why. “I love Naruto,” she tells him, her words heavy and soft all at once.

She has always thrown herself in the way of attacks meant for those she loves. Kiba knows she would do it for her sister, for Neji, for her team, but he had nearly gone mad in the time she was gone as his head filled with questions about her safety.

“Hinata,” Shino says from where he is sitting, “Is he truly worth your devotion?”

They have always known each other better than they know themselves, so Kiba and Hinata hear the unspoken question. _Why him? Aren’t we enough? Why is he the one who completes you?_

Kiba has thought the same thing many times, has berated himself for thinking such a thing. Of course they are enough for Hinata, but they are not in love and they never will be. They cannot fill that role for her. 

Shino moves over towards them, taking Hinata’s free hand. “He makes me a better person,” she tells them, a bittersweet smile on her face. “I want to be strong for him. I want to be a person who stands by his side, who lets him know that there are people who support him.”

“You’ve always been strong enough,” Kiba says, quiet in the intimacy of his team. “Always. He’s a fool if he doesn’t realize it.” He wants to tell her that he thought they did all that as a team, that just being together made them want to be better people, that he is motivated to become strong so because his team inspires him and he thought that she was the same. Instead, he says nothing, but he hears Akamaru whimper and the faint click of Shino’s kikaichu, and he knows they are wondering the same: are they good enough? She left without them, before, left them behind, and they have been hurting for so long. Kiba wants to ask, but he doesn’t want to open that wound, not yet. 

Hinata squeezes her eyes shut and lets out a shaky breath. “I’m okay with him never loving me. It’ll hurt, but there are things more important than love.” Her eyes open, and Kiba sees the steel in them, and knows now that Hinata would give up the love of her life if it meant that her clan was free.

“What about your happiness?” he asks, his chest tight with the thought of Hinata’s sacrifice.

She bows her head down so her hair hides her face, but Kiba can feel the way her hand trembles in his own. “There are many different types of happiness. Naruto is one kind. Freeing my clan is another. There are things more important than me and what I want.”

Kiba wants to cry, wants to shake her and tell her that she should put herself first for once. He knows she’s right, that there are hundreds of Hyuuga who deserve freedom, but Hinata is _suffering_ and he hurts just thinking about it.

“What about us?” Shino asks, his free hand twitching at his side. Kiba knows that he has been scared of being forgotten, that he has lived his life being left behind and treated as a spare to everyone but his team. The world sees Shino’s bluntness, his quietness, and his weird skill and they never take the time to learn how he shows affection, how the Aburame clan is so full of love if given a chance. The world sees Kiba’s loudness, his brashness, and his overconfident facade and they think they know him already without learning of his fears, of his loneliness. The world sees Hinata’s love, her timidness, and her shyness and they write her off as weak. Team 8 has always been able to see each other the way they are, the one piece of their lives that is purely their own. No one else could just waltz onto their team, no one else will know them the way the people who fought with them and bled with them will.

“I’ll want you both no matter what,” Hinata says, voice firm in the night air. This is a certainty- a constant in their lives. Even if no one else wants them, their team will. “There are things more important than what I want, but that doesn’t mean I won’t fight for you both. I could live without Naruto rejecting me, I could live with failure, but I would never live without you all.”

Kiba buries his nose into her hair when he hears her sniffle, and he and Shino hold her close. He never wants to let go of this, of their team. He doesn’t know what will happen to Hinata when she returns to Konoha, but he knows he will not let harm come to her. 

“Hinata, we love you. So much.” he tells her, his throat tight with tears he will not shed.

“I know,” she tells them. “I love you both so much.”

“We have always loved you,” Shino says, “Why? Because you are Hinata, and that has always been enough.” 

***

“Do you think Naruto will ever love me?” Hinata asks one night. 

Shino pokes the fire they have going with a stick, his mouth a tight line. “I think it’s possible. He was distraught when you first left, but I do not know if that means he loves you.”

“He doesn’t know you,” Kiba says. “He hasn’t taken the time to get to know you. I don’t think he can love you, not really, unless he knows who you are outside of the girl who saves his life. I don’t think Sakura can love you either, unless she takes time to know you outside of missions and being someone she brings back from the dead.”

“Sakura?” Hinata questions.

Kiba isn’t surprised she hasn’t realized that the pink medic likes her. Hinata has always been slow in realizing that people saw her as anything other than a burden, much less as someone worth loving. “Yeah, she nearly lost it when you left the village. It’s like when Sasuke left when we were twelve, but this time it seemed more real, less of a twelve-year-old being over emotional, you know? Shino and I are pretty sure she’s in love with you, but like I said, she doesn’t actually know you.”

Hinata doesn’t say anything, gaping at the fire and eyes far away. Shino stares at her with concern, and Kiba is getting ready to chuck a stone towards her when she finally looks up. “I didn’t realize,” she says, pulling on her bottom lip with her teeth, “That Sakura felt that way.”

“Does it changes things?”

“No,” Hinata mutters, clasping her hands together in her lap, “She and Naruto don’t actually know me as a person. You’re right, Kiba. They can’t love me if they don’t see me for who I really am.”

The mood feels somber, and Kiba almost regrets what he said, but he meant it. How could they love Hinata if they saw her as their fantasy girl instead of who she really is? Hinata deserves someone who loves her for who she is. If it’s Naruto or Sakura in the future, that’s okay, but they have to know who she is outside of their daydreams.

He doesn’t say it, but they need to know her the way he and Shino do.

“It doesn’t matter,” Hinata whispers to the fire, full of sadness. “There are more important things.”

***

They start returning to Konoha. They move slowly, Hinata’s injuries hindering her movement, and they take plenty of breaks, spending the time lounging around rivers they find or enjoying the sunlight that streams through the tree canopy. 

Shino has his toes in the water of a lake they came across while Hinata rests against a tree, flowers in hand. Kiba, running around with Akamaru, can’t help but think that this is how it was always meant to be. For the first time since the war, he feels at peace. 

Hinata gives them each a flower, tucking them into their hair and Akamaru’s fur. The smile on her face is bright and full of hope, and Kiba feels something in his chest loosen. Despite the journey she is on, she is still the same Hinata as before. He scans her face, committing every line and curve to memory.

After all, who knows what awaits her in Konoha? Tsunade’s words ring in Kiba’s head- he and Shino have free passes, but Hinata is a problem to be dealt with later. Fear grips him, but it doesn’t stop him from placing a lily into her hair, grinning when she blushes. He likes to think that Hinata will be fine. They let Sasuke back, and he committed a ton of crimes. Hinata hasn’t hurt anyone, she’s _helped_ them, especially during the war when Naruto was about to die.

Kiba likes to remain optimistic, but he is scared. At night, he and Shino curl close on either side of Hinata with Akamaru at their feet. During the late hours of the night, if he sees Shino’s eyes reflecting the same terror he feels back at him, he doesn’t mention it.

He would leave Konoha for Hinata, he thinks. He would give up his dream of becoming Hokage. After all, Konoha isn’t Konoha without Hinata, and he isn’t Kiba without her around. They never talk about it, but he notices how Shino holds Hinata just a bit tighter than he needs to, and Kiba thinks they are on the same page. 

He sometimes catches Hinata looking at them, in the beginning hours of the morning, as if they are a dream and will go away. He hears the way she mutters in her sleep, how the first thing she does when she wakes is to feel around her eyes. He knows the furrow that rests in her brow when she catches sight of the scar on her face in her reflection.

“Hinata,” he asks after watching her trace a finger over the scar, “What happened?”

“The byakugan is worth a lot for those who seek power,” she mutters. “I’ll give it to the elders- the byakugan does need protection, but we have never needed a seal for that.”

“What do you need?” Shino asks.

Hinata’s grin is full of teeth. “We need trust. If someone steals our eyes, we steal them back. If someone tries to take them, we should trust that the clan will see that person dead. Why have a seal when there are hundreds of Hyuuga? We have only ever needed trust in our clan.”

Kiba wishes that Hyuuga reform had come before Hinata. He wishes she had grown up in a clan that had trust, in one that had smiles and love instead of cold disapproval. He wishes Hinata did not have to suffer so the future could prosper, but he is proud of her for setting out to change everything wrong in her clan.

She no longer shuffles from place to place, and Konoha is growing closer by the day. Kiba watches as her hands shake slightly at her side before Hinata transforms in front of him, turning into a woman made of iron who will take what she demands.

Lead sits in his stomach, but he is so proud of her.

“We’re with you all the way,” he tells her. Shino nods his head and Akamaru barks in agreement. Peace is not easy to find in the life of a shinobi, but Kiba thinks that he has it. When his team is by his side, he feels calm, ready for anything that comes their way.

He doesn’t need to wonder if they feel the same- he knows they do.

They start heading towards Konoha, Team 8 finally whole once again.

**Author's Note:**

> uhh everyone loves hinata! and i like sakuhina and naruhina but if theyre gonna date her they need to actually learn who she is yanno?
> 
> also this is def kibahinashino implied like either platonic or romantic but they have tight Bonds and kiba and shino are emotionally stunted. team 8 loves each other so much im so :'-)


End file.
